Bald eagles undergo a gradual transformation, taking about 5 years to develop their familiar adult appearance after beginning life with downy gray feathers, and in the wild they can live 35 years or more. Their name comes from the old English word "balde," meaning white, not from baldness. They should be observed respectfully from at least 100 yards away. After falling to 4 breeding pairs in 1979, bald eagles recovered enough to be removed from the federal list of threatened and endangered species in 2007 and from Ohio's list in 2012. Their nests, called aeries, are typically 5 to 6 feet in diameter and 2 to 4 feet in height, and are built at the tops of tall trees near water, often reused year after year. Bald eagles glide low over water, catch fish with their feet, and fly off to eat them. A mated pair usually stays together for life unless one bird dies or disappears, and may produce up to three eggs a year, though not all usually survive. The 1-3 eggs typically incubate for the first 35 days from February through April, and the eaglets usually leave the nest after 10-13 weeks; if a nest is destroyed, some pairs will begin a second nest in the same year. In Northwest Ohio, nesting pairs now thrive along lakes, rivers, wetlands, the Maumee River, Lake Erie's western basin, and protected wildlife areas such as Magee Marsh, where conservation efforts and cleaner waterways have supported a significant resurgence.